The saddest story so far.....

Since I have been here on the west coast of Canada and living on Vancouver Island, I have just had the saddest experience........Back when I first moved here, I spent quite a bit of time at the local airpark and got to know a few of the great guys who fly here.....I have since had the good fortune to go flying with a few of these fine friends.......
This Thursday past, I received a most disturbing e-mail which stated the nightmare of any flier......a plane was down and in the river.....the note itself was from a friend who owns and operates a Volmer-Jensen homebuilt amphibian....been up in it and love the bird.....
Dave tells me of a dead stick landing in the river by Hal, the owner of a Vans RV-6...been up in this one too and looked forward to the possibility of another jaunt.....not looking good so far......
So the first question is about Hal.....but the answer is already mentioned in a word that he is OK and back to the river in the PM to try and assess the situation so some form of recovery can be initiated ?...
Well where do we start ......always the question is "what happened? ".....really, this can be gone over after, but for now, lets just suffice to say that a mistake was made and it was a very costly one, but in the final analysis, the physical injuries will heal and the financial loss will not totally ever be recovered, ......sad indeed, but life goes on.......
First imags here will show where the A/C sat inverted on the bottom of the river at low tide, just a few hours after the dust had settled......


This is Friday morn at first light.....rain falling and the tide is high......not a good start to make an attempt to overturn the bird back onto its wheels so we can tow it down river to the float plane ramp.......we took lots of tries before we eventually had to give up the idea as the current in the river was too strong and the ability to maneuver the boat was not adequate ......images of this part were not able to be captured as the four of us in the boat were a bit to busy to take a chance of losing a camera overboard......here also is the boat at the dock after we had finally placed the A/C just off the ramp for the drag out of the water......



Just off the ramp and ready for the haul and flip .....this wasn't the most relaxing part of the ordeal.....but it does show the damage and how bad things can get in this sort of situation.....




From here, you can see the boxes strapped in which were used to take air samples for an environmental agency......this was the purpose of the flight on this particular day.....

Back on its wheels, the little yellow bird now awaits its final trip back to the hangar.......

Without any power, the bent and broken airframe is physically manhandled as it gets rolled back on misaligned wheels to Hangar 37....


And now at the hangar, it sits dejected and sad looking with only bare resemblance of its beautiful look from the morning before......



And the way I will always remember her, with me and Hal preparing for a great evening flight over the mountains of Vancouver Island....

Sorry for the long winded story and excess of images, ....will try to stay within the rules .........
This Thursday past, I received a most disturbing e-mail which stated the nightmare of any flier......a plane was down and in the river.....the note itself was from a friend who owns and operates a Volmer-Jensen homebuilt amphibian....been up in it and love the bird.....
Dave tells me of a dead stick landing in the river by Hal, the owner of a Vans RV-6...been up in this one too and looked forward to the possibility of another jaunt.....not looking good so far......
So the first question is about Hal.....but the answer is already mentioned in a word that he is OK and back to the river in the PM to try and assess the situation so some form of recovery can be initiated ?...
Well where do we start ......always the question is "what happened? ".....really, this can be gone over after, but for now, lets just suffice to say that a mistake was made and it was a very costly one, but in the final analysis, the physical injuries will heal and the financial loss will not totally ever be recovered, ......sad indeed, but life goes on.......
First imags here will show where the A/C sat inverted on the bottom of the river at low tide, just a few hours after the dust had settled......


This is Friday morn at first light.....rain falling and the tide is high......not a good start to make an attempt to overturn the bird back onto its wheels so we can tow it down river to the float plane ramp.......we took lots of tries before we eventually had to give up the idea as the current in the river was too strong and the ability to maneuver the boat was not adequate ......images of this part were not able to be captured as the four of us in the boat were a bit to busy to take a chance of losing a camera overboard......here also is the boat at the dock after we had finally placed the A/C just off the ramp for the drag out of the water......



Just off the ramp and ready for the haul and flip .....this wasn't the most relaxing part of the ordeal.....but it does show the damage and how bad things can get in this sort of situation.....




From here, you can see the boxes strapped in which were used to take air samples for an environmental agency......this was the purpose of the flight on this particular day.....

Back on its wheels, the little yellow bird now awaits its final trip back to the hangar.......

Without any power, the bent and broken airframe is physically manhandled as it gets rolled back on misaligned wheels to Hangar 37....


And now at the hangar, it sits dejected and sad looking with only bare resemblance of its beautiful look from the morning before......



And the way I will always remember her, with me and Hal preparing for a great evening flight over the mountains of Vancouver Island....

Sorry for the long winded story and excess of images, ....will try to stay within the rules .........
